RomanPunks is a retrofuturistic, cyberpunk derivative world-building project inspired by fine art, history and the cryptopunk movement.
A total of 1,000 RomanPunk characters have been frozen in time and minted as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum, WAX, Polygon and Algorand blockchains.
RomanPunk characters are comprised of commoners and famous individuals based on Roman history, art history and pop culture.
The basis for RomanPunk lore and backstories is exhaustively researched by history/sci-fi buff and co-founder, Punktavian.
All images are drawn by hand by woman artist and co-founder, Cleopunktra, without the aid of AI or generative tools.
RomanPunks came into existence through early minting on OpenSea, promoting on Twitter and building a Discord community through giveaways and engagement. The idea of a cyberpunk-derivative ‘RomanPunk’ theme was in our heads for years, but it was the success of the Cryptopunks that became the catalyst for project conception and launch.
After a hard working first 60 days spent networking and attracting new collectors to RomanPunks, our community had begun to flourish and sales increased. We began to offer our collectors an opportunity to battle their NFTs in a tournament bracket powered by dice rolls.
Encouraged by the tight knit community and the carbon-neutral blockchain with lightning fast and low cost transactions, we launched 'romanpunksio' collection on WAX Blockchain as the first step to expand the backstories of our RomanPunk characters and the baseline for future development of a card game.
RomanPunks integrated with Chainlink Labs to utilize VRF (Verified Randomness Function) to host a giveaway raffle for our holders. We developed a smart contract on Ethereum which guarantees true random number selection on chain and can be used for a wide range of functions that require random selection.
After much anticipation in the community, we released our first WAX NFT card 'pack' through the Neftyblocks platform, which sold out in less than a week.
We launched our Twitch channel and begun building an audience by offering numerous giveaways of WAX NFTs from our collection, as well as giving participants a chance to win RomanPunk ETH NFT airdrops for taking top spot at the end of the 'season'.
As firm believers in a metaverse future and land owners in The Sandbox, we undertook to build the RomanPunk Colosseum on 1x1 land and entered our experience "Gladiator Bloodsport" into a GameJam contest. We will continue to build the Colosseum into a PVP arena and social hub once The Sandbox offers creators the ability to do so.
Thanks to the user friendly tools offered by NeftyBlocks, we launched a comprehensive blending system on WAX, allowing our collectors to blend the common NFTs they earn in our Discord RPG up into Legendary famous NFTs through the use of blending 'coins' that can also be earned on the Discord as reward for helping to promote the RomanPunks project.
We launched the VX collection on Polygon. Each owner of an ETH NFT gets their voxel equivalent airdropped to them, and these NFTs can be redeemed for official NFTs on The Sandbox Marketplace once available.
All 1,000 original, unique 1:1 RomanPunk characters hand drawn by Cleopunktra and minted on OpenSea.
The RomanPunk WAX NFT Trading Card Fighter Pack Series II consists of 3 NFTs randomly selected from over 236 characters.
Upcoming plans for RomanPunks include:
Below is a comprehensive and searchable directory of all 1,000 RomanPunk Characters.
Born 275 AD in Amaseia, Thom discovered an interdimensional portal while exploring the caves behind his village. He passed to a war ravaged 42nd century Earth and was pressed into service by alien cyborg overlords.
Born 191 BC in Scodra, Kthjellime was a concubine of the defeated king Gentius who disguised herself as a guard captain to avoid capture by the Romans.
Born 55 BC in Chang’an, Kai Ren is the Qin Emperor’s first daughter and ancestral brain of the Xinhan Megacorp, a hegemonic power operated by an AI hive mind. Held hostage by time traffickers in 2411 AD Neo-Byzantium, she spends her time playing ancient CRPGs and denigrating her cyborg servant jailers.
Born 397 AD in Sirmium, Exene was a war child who spent her youth on the battlefield where she met her husband Alaviv. Together they sacked and pillaged Africa with Genseric’s army until the king, feeling his rule threatened, exiled her through an interdimensional portal to the 20th century.
Born 89 AD in Rome, Oppius was a member of the Punktorian Guard sent through an interdimensional portal on a reconnaissance mission by Emperor Hadrian; however, Oppius preferred the alternate 28th century AD reality and never attempted to return.
Born 200 BC in Xanthos, Matilda was chief librarian of the legendary Library of Lycia until cyborg and alien invaders annexed her homeland during the heyday of the Roman Republic. To escape enslavement, she conjured an interdimensional portal from ancient Sumerian texts, leaving to establish a rare used book store in 1980s AD Manhattan.
Born 315 AD in Aksum, Zosimus was cast into an interdimensional portal as a child sacrifice to the gods. Now he resides on the Roman Exocolony Proxima Centauri where his athletic prowess have allowed him to catapult to the top of the Celestial Badminton League (CBL) standings where he remains undefeated after seven hundred sanctioned singles matches.
Born 2488 AD in Ancyra, Draven comes from a long line of notorious highfalutin slave traders. He uses advanced telescopic lenses to scout his victims interdimensionally, then dispatches time traffickers through a portal to kidnap them as slaves for his base entertainment empire of lewd karaoke clubs, casinos, and virtual brothels in 26th century AD Neo-Byzantium. Charismatic yet ruthless, Draven’s influence extends back to ancient Galatia, long a haven for the effete elite, including covert colonialist cyborgs.
Born 2185 AD in Corduba, Xylo is an interdimensional RTS gaming prodigy and former techno-slave who hacked his way to freedom. Cocky and self-absorbed, Xylo lived only for the thrill of the game until a rebellion led by a cloned Hannibal Barca tried to recruit him in the fight against the cyborg Emperor Caligula. Not wanting to jeopardize his lucrative career, he refused, until a scandal contrived by a corrupt governor shattered his reputation. Now, with nothing left to lose, Xylo reluctantly joins the fight, piloting a Xena-class mech in the battle for Neo-Carthage. Xylo plays by his own rules, driven less by loyalty than by the thrill of proving that the system is his to control—and burn.
Born 197 BC in Nikonion, Joe was born a slave, toiling in the vast wheat fields of the steppe until one day he saved his master’s life by killing a Pontic magistrate who had come to arrest and execute him for tax evasion. Freed, now Joe lives life on the run.
Born 199 AD in Cirta, Bagduda came from a tribe of futuristic warrior women who traveled through an interdimensional portal in Egypt to change the course of history by preventing the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander.
Born 1998 in Dyrrachium, Dardana is a superstar singer who was abducted by time traffickers and forced to perform in Diocletian’s palace as the Emperor’s personal chanteuse.
Born in 48 AD in Ravenna, Eunice is an expert knife fighter who is known to have killed dozens of men in self defense before joining the IV Legion. Loyal to Otho, she participated in the assassination of Emperor Galba, but was later forced to flee into an interdimensional portal to escape capture by Vitellius.
Born 1 AD in Rome, Larry is a crypt keeper who sometimes takes a little extra liking to a corpse.
Born in 49 BC in Amaseia, Voxia and her twin brother Nico were abandoned by their paranoid father and raised by dimension crossing brigands who trained them as deadly killers. Bitter and resentful of her father, Voxia is known to have clawed off the face of any man who dared try to rape her.
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© 2023 RomanPunks NFT
romanpunks@protonmail.ch
Registered in Ontario, Canada
